Seems like it's been such a long time since
I've written people. These past few weeks have gone by at a brisk pace. First
we had the ice cream remodel party earlier this month. We had a special
Curly's Dairy truck parked out front that was painted like a cow and had a
fake tail for a back window washer and a horn that sounded MOOO. On the side
of the truck there was a fold down shelf for serving ice cream and the
manager, Kirk, was stationed inside serving one of 8 flavors of ice cream
cones. When you come visit us next time, you can see on our family room wall
the signs I made directing the truck just where to park: "Please park IN
FRONT of the house vs. INSIDE the house. Thanks." In the flower beds,
where the truck plowed through, I had a sign saying, "Danger. Runaway
truck zone." Kirk told me he'd wondered what kind of mischief we'd have
in store for him.

On our back patio we had a serving station for
ice cream sundaes with toppings. Dad and his friend, Rodney, who just happens
to be Curly's owner and Kirk's dad, served up the sundaes. In the basement
kids played Nintendo and in the kitchen adults looked at our truck crash
photos. We were a bit disappointed that so many school friends were on
vacation as well as most of our relatives, but still we had what I later
counted to be 67 guests. Most of these people were neighbors and the party
resembled a block party more than anything else. The greatest exception to
this was the attendance of the Salem Heights principal and one teacher, and
that was fun to have them come. People came at different times through the
three hour open house and were dispersed throughout the house so it didn't
feel very busy.

We had a good time and the very best part of
all is that our house is now all fixed up, except for a few very minor
finishing touches. Hosting a big party is a great motivator to sprucing up
one's home and finally getting to all those little repairs and touch ups that
have been put off for months, or even years. We worked pretty hard and it's
great to have it done.